My Earliest NASCAR Adventure
By: Guest Writer - Jonathan Angove
04/10/2019
I
DM’d Patty (Twitter talk for “Direct Message) over
the weekend and expressed interest in her open invitation to write. I have no experience and haven’t had to write
any kind of paper since college, which was close to 20 years ago as I write
this, having recently turned 40.
Everyone has opinions on this or that and most are both valid and
invalid at the same time and perhaps I’ll opine next time, if there is a next
time, but I decided to touch on my first adventure as a NASCAR fan at the
track.
Growing
up in a non-NASCAR family I was the one that got everyone else interested. My earliest memories of watching are from the
mid to late 1980s when DW, Rusty, and Dale were King and the King was not. More on that another time.
I
listened to an MRN recap of the 1993 NASCAR Winton Cup season this morning as I
got a pre-dawn walk in (I’d recommend the MRN podcast, not the walk). The episode I listened to this morning was #7
and the primary focus of the segment had to do with the passing of Davey
Allison. I remember that time very well
and it was a very sad time in NASCAR in general.
It
did get me to thinking of the first race that I would ever attend later on that
season at Martinsville. What is so vivid
about that is two-fold. First, being a
DW fan, his early spin in turn 2 never left my mind, I kept hearing “trouble in
turn 2” over the next week. The second
being that was the first race that Ernie Irvan would win in the famed RYR #28
car vacated by Davey’s untimely death.
I’ll
never forget the Virginia native in the stands down by the catch fence holding
up a sign that said “Come Back 4 Ernie.”
For those that do not remember, Ernie had left the Morgan McClure Racing
bright yellow #4 Chevrolet to drive the Ford for Robert Yates. At this time in the sport, just like the Wood
Brothers were and still are, Morgan McClure Racing based just down the road in
Abington, Virginia was an institution especially in SW Virginia. Everyone from within 100 miles of Abington
considered this their hometown team even if you liked another driver more. A lot of people were disappointed and
perhaps even angry and upset at the in-season decision Ernie made to leave
Morgan McClure Racing. He had already
racked up 7 top 5’s and a win that season before he left. The team had stuck by and helped Ernie grow
and learn through controversy that earned him the nickname “Swervin
Irvan.”
This
race would largely be one of those races most fans remember, if not for it
being their first race then for the circumstance surrounding the 28 rising up
from the devastation faced earlier this year.
Ernie Irvan and the 28 Ford dominated that race from start to
finish. There was never any doubt and
barely any drama. I looked backed at the
box score this afternoon and saw that Ernie led 402 of the 500 laps at the half
mile Virginia paperclip.
The
1993 season in NASCAR is a particular one that changed the trajectory of the
sport in so many different ways. It got
me thinking of some events that transpired over the next decade as a direct
result of what happened during the course of the 1993 season.
First
let’s take a look at one of the direct impacts, the 28 car and what happened
there. Fast Forward to summer a year
later where Ernie Irvan was battling tooth and nail for the points champion
with eventual Champion Dale Earnhardt.
Going into the 21st race of the season at Michigan Irvan
trailed Earnhardt by a mere 27 points after a second place finish the week
before at the winding road course of Watkins Glen in upstate New York. Irvan was practicing Saturday morning for the
Sunday race at Michigan when a right front tire went down and caused Irvan to
hit the outside retaining while as he was accelerating coming off turn two of
the 2 mile oval. The Robert Yates Racing
team withdrew from competition that week but would return 2 races later with
Kenny Wallace behind the wheel at Bristol.
Ernie Irvan did eventually recover enough to return to competition but
he never did seem to have the same fire after the 1994 crash. He did return to the #28 Ford in the 1995 to
run 3 races. Irvan recovered enough to
eventually win 3 more times in the 1996 and 1997 season. The last win of his career would come at that
same Michigan track to nearly took his life 3 years earlier. In a cruel twist of fate at that same
Michigan track that nearly took his life, it ended his career when he slammed
into the turn 4 wall while practicing for the Busch series companion
event. Ernie never would return to
competition following that crash. Dale Earnhardt
would win the 1994 points Championship in an overwhelming fashion. His closest competitor was Mark Martin 444
points back when the season ended at Atlanta.
One can’t help but think what might have been for the career and legacy
of Ernie Irvan however.
Dale
Jarrett was tapped by Robert Yates to drive the 28 car in 1995 while Ernie was
still sidelined following his 1994 crash.
Dale Jarrett was an accomplished driving in his own right having won 3
races before joining the Yates team, including
the 1993 Daytona 500 while driving the green #18 for Joe Gibbs
Racing. In 1996 when Ernie Irvan returned
to the #28 car, Dale Jarret moved to the newly formed #88 blue Quality Care
Ford that Robert Yates started when Ernie was well enough to return. Dale Jarret would be a fixture at the top of
the NASCAR standings for the next 6 seasons(1996-2001)winning 24 times and finishing
in the top 5 in standing each year including the 1999 Championship, cementing
his legacy as one of the top drivers in the sport’s history. In the late 1990s it seemed that every race I
went to, Jarret or Jeff Gordon would win.
Dale
Jarret leaving a winning race organization left a sought after vacancy that
landed at the feet of Bobby Labonte to pilot the #18 car most weeks sponsored
by Interstate Batteries. Prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing Labonte had success
in the Busch series, winning that championship in 1991 and finishing 2nd
in 1992. He had 2 seasons of Winston Cup
experience under his belt, having driven the #22 Ford for Bill Davis racing,
but had yet to experience any success, having only finished in the top 5
once. The combination of Bobby and crew
chief Jimmy Makar showed immediate promise with 2 second places finishes in the
first 4 races before eventually winning the Coke 600 in May. Bobby would go on to win 2 more races in 1995
including the season ending race at Atlanta where his brother, Terry was
crowned the 1995 Winston Cup Champion.
Bobby would continue to have success winning races and placing in the
top 5 in the latter half of the 1990s before eventually winning the Winston Cup
a year after Dale Jarret, in 2000.
In
concluding this it would seem that NASCAR in many ways very much mirrors
life. Where one chapter closes, another
begins. Where one road ends, other
begins. The 1993 season, very much like
life, had challenges and tragedy but everything does move on. Within each tragedy remains the opportunity
to triumph.